97369 - Environmental Aspects in Cosmetic Sciences

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students have acquired a knowledge on the methods required to evaluate the environmental fate and exposure of chemical substances used in cosmetics; are able to understand the principles of environmental risk assessment applied to cosmetic products; have attained basic and advanced tools for the correct interpretation of environmental issues of personal care products.

Course contents

Supply chain of cosmetic industry, impact factor climate change. Basic definitions: climate change, global mean surface temperature, global warming, greenhouse gas (GHG), decarbonisation. Actions: UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, ETS (cap and trade). GHG emissions, removal, carbon neutrality; land use. Science: thermal energy (black body, S-B law), solar irradiance, Earth absorption, energy budget, IR spectra GHG and atmospheric window. Metrics: greenhouse effect, radiative forcing (RF), relationships RF GHG concentrations, climate sensitivity, global warming potential (GWP), atmospheric decay, CO2 equivalents. Carbon footprint, report, scopes. Source and fate of cosmetic ingredients in the environment. Basics of environmental risk assessment. (ERA). Exposure, primary data (volatilisation, water solubility, Kow), secondary data (partition coefficients, BCF). Dissipation, transfer (Kd, Koc). Degradation, half-life, examples of biodegradation and photodegradation of cosmetic ingredients. Examples and case studies

Readings/Bibliography

Lesson slides in Virtuale.

Case studies:

e-books

scientific articles and reports

Teaching methods

Videoprojection of power point presentation.

Assessment methods

Oral examination. The student will be required to present and discuss a case study on the topics dealt with in the course (for example, actions to reduce GHG emissions of a cosmetic industry, environmental profile of a cosmetic ingredient). A couple of questions will be asked on definitions described in the course (examples, greenhouse gas, land use, carbon neutrality, GWP, CO2 equivalents, risk quotient in ERA, dissipation (Koc,…), degradation (half-life...).

Teaching tools

Lecturing, tutorials,  numerical exercises from case studies.

Office hours

See the website of Daniele Fabbri